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Roy Rogers in TruColor and Uncut (1 Viewer)

Bob Gu

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OLDIES.COM has their $3.99 Alpha sale, going on until May 31, 2011.
The sale is a good opportunity to pick up the Alpha uncut Roy Rogers movies, and the Alpha Rogers double-features, along with the Roy Rogers with Dale Evans 4 episode TV show releases. Even though the picture quality is "as is" and most of the movies are the cut versions, the sale is an inexpensive way to get alot of Rogers output.
Alpha has many other B-westerns, even some William S. Hart silents in their PD catalog. Oldies.com also sells major studio titles. They also carry the MOD titles from Warner, Sony, and MGM for $14.95-$18.95. Oldies carries entertainment books and magazines, sometimes cheaper than Amazon.
I have been adding to my Rogers collection with these sales over the last couple of years and was surprised to realize that, I only have about six Roy Rogers feature titles to go, to complete my collection. Of course it is a combination of cut and uncut, Pro-VHS, PD-VHS ,DVD, and DVD-R. And it's 'only' taken me 30 years.
 

JoeDoakes

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On Friday, July 1, TCM will be showing Cowboy and the Senorita, My Pal Trigger, Trigger Jr., Don't Fence Me In, and The Golden Stallion (http://www.tcm.com/schedule/monthly.html?tz=est&sdate=2011-07-01). The first three films will be shown at the TCM film festival from 35 mm prints. Trigger Jr. was restored by UCLA. The run times of the films make all of them look uncut. Depending on where TCM gets their prints, this showing may be the best we will ever see these films. Get your recorders ready.
 

Steve...O

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Thanks, Ray. TCM is also supposedly having a Roy festival in November to celebrate his 100th (wow, does that seem possible?)

It's such a shame that Roy's films and TV series are in such disarray compared to the Autry and Cassidy catalog. I'll catch Gene every so often on the Westerns Channel and his films look incredible.

With the Autry TV series finally getting a legit full season release I'm hopeful that somehow the Rogers series (which I personally preferred) will get a 35mm release, but it sounds like the original prints left the Rogers archives years ago and are now in the hands of a private collector.
 

DeWilson

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Originally Posted by Steve...O

With the Autry TV series finally getting a legit full season release I'm hopeful that somehow the Rogers series (which I personally preferred) will get a 35mm release, but it sounds like the original prints left the Rogers archives years ago and are now in the hands of a private collector.
Let's not forget that TV package from the 1980's with new Generic Wrap-Arounds by Roy new opening/closing credits and episodes edited to about 23 minutes. UPA put it together. These were the ones that came out on Paramount Home Video as well.
These versions of the episodes a due to run on the new Kid's channel PBJ that is a spin-off from RTV. Launching later this year, programed with material from the Classic Media Library.
 

Steve...O

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Interesting info,Denny; thank you. I will have to keep an eye out to see if my cable company adds this PBJ network.
 

PaulaJ

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Anyone else go to the TCM Classic Film festival and see the Roy Rogers movies? Barry Allen, now retired from Paramount, restored four of Rogers' films to their original complete length (complete prints in various states were available in foreign archives and the movies were restored from elements in the U.S. and from these archives) and they were screened at the festival in honor of Rogers' 100th birthday.

The first three were black and white (Under Western Stars, The Cowboy and the Senorita, My Pal Trigger) but the fourth film was one of the Trucolor films, Trigger Jr.

Barry Allan said that Paramount had complete separations on and he had made a new 35mm element and what we saw at the festival was the only Rogers Trucolor print that is currently on safety stock. I have to say it looked GORGEOUS and as sharp as it's ever going to look. Trucolor (as you all know) is a two-color process and when they shot the film, they had not made a green negative (I hope I'm getting this tech stuff right; someone please correct me if I'm wrong), so the print was mainly various shades and hues of gold (varying from earth tones to bright orange) and blue (again, varying from grayish blue to a lovely cerulean sky). Not exactly Technicolor ;) but extremely beautiful in its own way. Dale Evans' lipstick was an interesting shade of orange throughout. ;)

I wish these four restored films would appear on DVD but Mr. Allen (who is retired from Paramount) doesn't know of any plans to do so.
 

JoeDoakes

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Originally Posted by PaulaJ
Anyone else go to the TCM Classic Film festival and see the Roy Rogers movies? Barry Allen, now retired from Paramount, restored four of Rogers' films to their original complete length (complete prints in various states were available in foreign archives and the movies were restored from elements in the U.S. and from these archives) and they were screened at the festival in honor of Rogers' 100th birthday.

The first three were black and white (Under Western Stars, The Cowboy and the Senorita, My Pal Trigger) but the fourth film was one of the Trucolor films, Trigger Jr.
As I noted above, the Cowboy and the Senorita, My Pal Trigger, and Trigger Jr. are showing on TCM on July 1. Hopefully, the prints used are the restored versions.
 

Rodney

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I hope these are just the first of many restored Rogers films! I cannot wait for the July 1st airing on TCM. Here is hoping they become available for purchase.
 

Bob Gu

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The Gene Autry Museum will be showing a 78 minute version of THE BELLS OF SAN ANGELO: http://theautry.org/programs/film/bells-of-san-angelo-1947

The Autry folks are interested in helping preserve the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive.

The Bells of San Angelo has been available on DVD and VHS in Trucolor, but in a very choppy and only 75 minute cut version. So it will be interesting to find out if The Autry showing will be an uncut print. I hope there is an HTFer that can report on this showing. I hope it is uncut and makes it to DVD along with any other newly restored Roy Rogers movies.


If PaulaJ is here, thanks for the great first-hand account of seeing the restored Rogers movies.

Re: Trucolor: My understanding is that the two colors are, a red and a cyan (blue/green), with no actual yellow. In 1951 Republic started using a three color process, and still called it Trucolor. A couple of Republics were in Technicolor: The Quiet Man, The Red Pony, and one of their musicals.
 

PaulaJ

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I am here, glad you liked it. :)

That's fabulous about the Autry Museum wanting to help out with more restorations. Anyone here been to that museum? It's a fantastic place and I was especially impressed with Autry's gun collection. There is some amazingly elaborately decorated weaponry there. :)

Now, if only some of these restorations could make it onto DVD...
 

John Sparks

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It's a great museum. My fire station was responsible for protection of the building, so we all got to see it being built and was allowed into the areas that they restore priceless western artifacts. I haven't been there in a few years.
 

Richard--W

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Turner Classic Movies will be showing restorations of Roy Rogers films every Friday in July, starting tomorrow.
I can't seem to get to a July schedule or I'd list them, but the commercial they are airing looks wonderful.
 

DeWilson

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Richard--W said:
Turner Classic Movies will be showing restorations of Roy Rogers films every Friday in July, starting tomorrow.
I can't seem to get to a July schedule or I'd list them, but the commercial they are airing looks wonderful.
It's not every Friday, just THIS Friday (7/1) The rest of the month on Friday, it's other singing cowboys!
 

Professor Echo

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Did anybody watch the pictures they showed on TCM last night? I would like to know if they were uncut and restored.

The first one they showed, THE COWBOY AND THE SENORITA, appeared to be a cut print since the running time was listed as only 52 minutes. How about the rest?
 

DeWilson

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Professor Echo said:
Did anybody watch the pictures they showed on TCM last night? I would like to know if they were uncut and restored.

The first one they showed, THE COWBOY AND THE SENORITA, appeared to be a cut print since the running time was listed as only 52 minutes. How about the rest?
Whatever listing you saw was a mistake - THE COWBOY AND THE SENORITA ran (and was listed at TCM.com) as running 78 minutes. It was unedited, but clearly from an unrestored (but overall clean transfer) 16mm print.
Not sure about the others.
 

John Sparks

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Don't Fence Me In...IMDB=71 min TCM=71 min...Print was good
Golden Stallion........IMDB=67 min TCM=63 min...Print was good, but that Trucolor was atrocious. Some scenes the green turned to torquoise.
My Pal Trigger..........IMDB=79 min TCM=78 min...Print was good
Trigger, Jr.................IMDB=68 min TCM=66 min... Print was super. The Trucolor looked just like color.
Question, why did they use Trucolor, why not Cinecolor?
 

Bob Gu

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Republic Studios owned the Trucolor process through their film processing company, called Consolidated Film Industries, so it was less expensive to do their color films "in-house" rather than pay to use another companies' color process.
John were these TCM Rogers movies better looking/sounding, than other versions you may have in your collection? I described the Republic Home Video VHS version of "Don't Fence Me In" in post #24 of this thread. Does that description match the TCM print?
 

DeWilson

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John Sparks said:
Golden Stallion........IMDB=67 min TCM=63 min...Print was good, but that Trucolor was atrocious. Some scenes the green turned to torquoise.
My Pal Trigger..........IMDB=79 min TCM=78 min...Print was good
Trigger, Jr.................IMDB=68 min TCM=66 min... Print was super. The Trucolor looked just like color.
"Golden Stallion" is a PD title and most likely they got their print from a 3rd party
"My Pal Trigger" and "Trigger, Jr" are both Republic titles that are still under copyright,and were released on VHS by RHV as well as having aired on Encore Westerns in The Past.
 

Richard--W

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Perhaps some of the confusion can be cleared up by reading PaulaJ's post above, post #66. I got home too late for The Cowboy and the Senorita, but I did see part of Don't Fence Me In, and I watched The Golden Stallion, My Pal Trigger, and Trigger, Jr. They appear to be exactly the same excellent transfers Republic released on VHS a decade ago, which we discussed in posts above. Or, they are the restorations PaulaJ describes, which could be the same thing as the VHS releases. Since broadcasting has gone HD and digital since those tapes were sold, that may account for any perceived upgrade in the quality. To my eye, the TruColor titles looked lovely.
How unfortunate for Roy Rogers fans the restored films are withheld from DVD release. The situation is quite ridiculous.
 

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